TGI Fridays is offering buy one entree get one free through November 30th. Plus sign up for their loyalty program and get a free appetizer or dessert.

Hotel Club is offering $50 towards a hotel booking for new members, valid through November 30th.

Update: Just realized that One Mile at a Time has noted this promo as well.

Update 2: In this Flyertalk thread, there are folks discussing getting the bonus multiple times by signing up for new accounts with different email addresses. That way a multi-night stay could be booked as several one-night stays, taking $50 off each night. Not sure how I personally feel about this approach. But I wouldn’t have a problem with a two night stay for two people where one person reserved the first night and the other person the second…

Both people out there who do Amtrak Guest Rewards segment runs take note, Amtrak now imposes a 4-segment per day limit for earning 100 point minimums, additional segments earn 2 points per dollar.

It’s clearly Flyertalk morning, because hat tip to Flyertalk Air Asia is offering a true $0+tax (no fuel surcharges) fare sale. Book by November 16 (which comes earlier over there than it does here in the U.S.) for travel between June 22 and October 24 — so lots of advance planning required — and you can fly just for the taxes.

By way of example, here’s an availability chart for flights out of Kuala Lumpur and here’s a chart for flights in and out of Bangkok.

Specific flights, with total price, booked by the person starting the Flyertalk thread were:

Clark-Kuala Lumpur one-way: $7.08 all-in (airport tax payable at airport)

Kuala Lumpur-Tawau (Borneo)-KL RT : $19.22 all-in (airport tax incl.)

Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok one-way: $15.31 all-in (airport tax incl.)

Bangkok-Jakarta-Bangkok RT: $33.89 all in (BKK airport tax incl)

You’re not gambling a whole lot of you think you need these flights. Intra-Asia flying can be quite cheap anyway, but these deals are truly cheap.

In my post last month with extensive tips for successful award redemption I mentioned the All Nippon Airways frequent flyer program award search site as a useful tool for finding available Star Alliance award availability.

There’s a helpful Flyertalk thread in the bmi Diamond Club forum that explains step-by-step what the aforementioned website does and how to use it. Thought it would be helpful to pass this along to those new at using the tool to help find their awards.

As I noted in my award booking tips post, the ANA website does not offer access to Air China or Swiss award inventory (though I provide a work-around for online availability of Swiss awards). And I also note that what the ANA site shows is not a perfect match for what United will permit you to book — ANA will show what award seats are being offered but United tens to deny their frequent flyers access to some of these seats (with agents frequently incorrectly blaming their Star Alliance partners for the lack of availability). But even for United, the ANA site is a very good start.

This Flyertalk thread cites an internal memo to Northwest flight attendants telling them to accept Delta drink chits, and no longer to accept Continental drink coupons. (Northwest’s coupons can also be used to purchase buy on board items, but they don’t take Delta coupons for that.)

Effective immediately, Northwest Flight Attendants may begin accepting Delta’s amenity coupons on all Northwest flights. A sample of the Delta amenity coupon Have One on Us is pictured below.

Please note that these coupons are about the size of a standard business card. The Delta coupons may be exchanged for one (1) alcoholic beverage or headset. Delta amenity coupons may not be exchanged for any buy on board food items. Delta amenity coupons should be included in the calculations under the deposit summary section of the FS-95 Sales Activity Form and deposited in the FS-93 Cash Envelope.

Note: Also effective immediately, we will no longer accept Continental Airlines’ Continental Currency coupons.

Flight Attendant Manual section 365.1 will be updated in the next revision to include this new information.

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m not a huge fan of the Delta Skymiles program, at least in terms of the value of a mile relative to a mile in many other programs.

The Delta award chart is expensive, availability tends to be tight relative to Star Alliance nad oneworld carriers, and the program unfriendly (they’re getting rid of US and Canadian departure fuel surcharges but they still have a partner fee and won’t hold itineraries when booking by phone). Plus since I like international first class awards, the Delta program doesn’t match up well, though they still do permit Singapore Airlines first class redemptions — and though I haven’t tested it yet I believe they still charge very hefty fees on those (several hundred dollars but worth it).

That said, I am a fan of bonus miles. Double miles are fantastic and make an otherwise pricey program worth accruing miles in. I’d take two Delta miles over a single United mile, for instance. Which is why I could often recommend the Delta American Express card products. Delta flyers need the cards for their bonus qualifying mile offers and the Reserve Card in particular to get bumped up in the upgrade queue.

But the regular miles collector could always use the Delta American Express for their popular ‘always double miles’ on “supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, home improvement and hardware stores, on qualifying purchases at the U.S. Postal Service, on wireless phone bill payments, and qualifying Delta purchases.”

Sadly, that benefit is now pulled and the always double miles stops with billing statements that begin on or after January 1, 2009 (or if your card was opened on or after November 1, 2007, this change goes into effect a year from when the card was opened).

So unless you’re using the card to top off towards elite status or other special purposes, there’s little competitive advantage in the card any longer.

Discussion of the change is taking place in this Flyertalk thread.

With the Delta-Northwest merger, the airline is revisiting several of its fees. The big ones, an elimination of award ticket fuel surcharges and charging fees for first checked bags (elites and premium class passengers are excluded).

The elimination of fuel surcharges from US and US/Canada-departing itineraries is great (they really ought to eliminate these fees from non-North American departures), but Delta still won’t put holds on awards booked by phone (and not all awards can be booked online, and those awards booked by phone incur a fee) and charges extra for awards on partners.

One Mile at a Time reports:

Per this thread on FlyerTalk, many Priority Club Platinum members have had success registering the promo code 6186. I signed up for this two weeks ago, and my 5,000 point bonus posted today. It seems like it’s not connected to anything other than being Platinum, but keep in mind that unless you were targeted, you’re technically not entitled to this, so don’t call Priority Club if this offer doesn’t post to your account.

One Mile at a Time mourns the loss of buying American Express travelers checks fee-free with co-branded American Express cards and earning the miles.

I too am sad to see this go, and of late when you could buy them online even with under $6 shipping and save the trip to the Amex travel office it was even better. They’d mail you the travelers checks, you’d deposit them in your checking, and use the funds to pay off the card.. generating easy miles.

A moment of silence, please.

Northwest — which will soon go away and merge its Worldperks program into Delta Skymiles — continues business as usual offering regular bonus promotions. This time it’s “Miles in the Bag,” a shopping promo offering triple miles at a variety of merchants through January 30. 1-800-Flowers and FTD offer 30 miles per dollar (compared to the hidden 25 United miles per dollar that’s still active…).

Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve been predicting it for awhile. United announced changes to its frequent flyer program today.

First, the minor change, they are restoring 500 mile minimum earning for elites matching Continental and American (leaving US Airways more or less out in the cold denying 500 mile minimums even to their elites). What’s more, they’re crediting the minimum miles retroactively so that elites won’t even be hurt by the change that took effect back in July.

Second, starting July 1, 2009 they’re making mileage upgrade awards more like American — upgrade on any fare, but with a co-pay. Even domestic upgrades come at a $50 cost on top of the current 15,000 miles each way (I miss 10,000 mile confirmed upgrades!). Hawaii upgrades bump up slightly, to 17,500 miles each way from their current 15,000 and United will now be tacking on a co-pay of “$250 – $500″ .. holy smokes! That’s the same co-pay range as Europe and Asia! At least on the international flights, though, you no longer have to purchase a more expensive fare to be eligible to use miles for upgrades. So the only real losses here are affordable Hawaii upgrades and the $50 nuisance fee to confirm a domestic upgrade. (I’ll still do it on my Los Angeles and San Francisco transcon flights, but the confirmed regional upgrades given to 100,000 mile flyers just got more value — by $50 apeice, since they don’t require a co-pay to secure a domestic upgrade.)

Third, the bloodbath to the award chart. United has offered a great value award chart, even after increasing mileage prices back in October, 2006. Business class from the US to Asia for 90,000 miles is a great deal, as is 120,000 miles for first. And I knew that wouldn’t last. But effective January 1 business class awards increase by 35,000 miles (39% in a single shot!) and first class awards increase by 25,000 miles (‘only’ 21%!).

One Mile at a Time has this to say about the award chart changes:

Australia is seeing increases of 20,000-25,000 miles for premium cabins, while Europe and South America are seeing changes of 15,000-30,000 miles! I realize UA was a bargain prior to this, but they’re priced higher than the competition for the most part now.

He also shared my very first thought when I saw this, “Now if only United would get rid of Starnet blocking, I could maybe accept this… ”

Except that United is now getting closer to the award chart pricing of far more generous frequent flyer programs that do not block. Air Canada’s award chart now looks like a real value. At least until they follow down United’s path, they offer first class from the US to South Asia for 120,000 miles. They’re an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner. And though they’re known for high award taxes and fees, if you combine multiple partners on an award those fees don’t seem to get tacked on.

Meanwhile, US Airways’ award chart is similarly attractive in many instances. Other programs offer awards for less, and do not block available inventory.

This change makes United a far less valuable program. Collect your United flight miles if you’re striving for elite status, especially 1K, but if you have the potential to earn large numbers of miles through non-flight activity, consider crediting those miles to other programs (just not Delta’s, and try to keep it in Star Alliance or oneworld).

Update: One Mile at a Time sees a silver lining:

[T]he mileage requirements in all classes for Central Asia/India/Africa have remained the same, and the changes to the Middle East are no more than 5,000 miles! I’ve actually not explored most of those destinations at all, so if anything this will give me a good reason to check them out. In a way I should be thanking UA for these “enhancements,” since they’ll undoubtedly widen my horizon, if only because of the lack of increases in mileage required for these places.

Through December 31, Marriott is offering a 10% bonus on the purchase of gift cards. You can use these to pay for your stays and, together with the bonus effectively receive a discount on your hotel rates.

This is a ‘friends and family’ offer for Marriott associates, and they were encouraged to ‘pass it on.’

Use promo code MMF at MarriottGiftCardOffer.com.

Update: Reader Rich points me to a Flyertalk thread which details how to get 10% off on the purchase of $1000 and $2000 Marriott Vacation Cards and also receive 1000 Delta miles per $1000. This requires a greater cash outlay (so you’d better have some Marriott stays lined up!) than the gift card offer above, but it comes with some Delta miles and a 10% savings rather than a 10% top-off to the card. The offer has been around for a year and a half. It currently shows an expiration of December 31, 2008 but may well get extended.